What Is the Rift Valley?Africa's Great
Rift Valley is a 6,000-mile crack (fissure) in the earth's crust, stretching from Lebanon
to Mozambique. One of its most dramatic sections slices through East Africa, dividing
Kenya into two segments. Geologists know that the Rift
Valley was formed by violent subterranean forces that tore apart the earth's crust. These
forces caused huge chunks of the crust to sink between parallel fault lines and force up
molten rock in volcanic eruptions. Evidence that this process, called rifting, is still in progress comes from the many
active and semi-active volcanoes, located along the Rift. Evidence of volcanic activity
along the rift is provided by the presence of numerous boiling hot springs.